Specifically, the San Jose Sharks, who are now playing the Edmonton Oilers in a best-of-seven series in the first round of the National Hockey League playoffs.
Talbot had given up only three goals in 83 shots entering the game and was pulled after giving up five in 24 attempts. Defensively, the San Jose Sharks are allowing 2.4 goals per game and are killing 80.7 percent of their opponents power plays.
Some trends don't bode well for the home team.
The Sharks are 2-7 in their last 9 road games and 5-11 in their last 16 vs.
San Jose's 7-0 victory in Game 4 followed consecutive shutout losses and tied the Western Conference quarterfinal 2-2. If the Oilers can continue to play this well on defense, the Sharks don't stand much of a chance.
"Just stay engaged in the game is the biggest thing", Talbot said. "I thought we were pretty desperate tonight and it showed up". The goal was the product of the Sharks trapping the Oilers third defensive unit of Darnell Nurse and Matt Benning on the ice and wearing them down in the zone.
At times, Larsson and Klefbom have drawn the challenge of covering San Jose captain Joe Pavelski, the Sharks' top-scoring forward in the regular season with 29 goals and 68 points. The previous high for San Jose was a five-goal margin.
Schiavone puts retirement off a bit longer with Bogota title
Get prep sports breaking news alerts from the Gwinnett Daily Post staff delivered to your email. Schiavone and Arruabarrena have never met before.
San Jose struck for a pair of goals midway through the second.
Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves and Rick Nash scored the deciding goal in the second period, as the New York Rangers defeated Montreal Canadiens 2-1 in Game 4 of their first-round series. They outhit the Oilers 32-14 in a scoreless first period. "You have to have a really good goaltender-both teams have that right now".
San Jose then took the game over in the second starting when Marleau scored on an early power play.
Most of the Oilers haven't had to deal with anything like this before. That made the Sharks stronger down the middle, McLellan said, and helped them dominate the first period. "Obviously here you need to win early or you're going to be gone".
The ball is now clearly in Todd McLellan's court.
The Shark Tank was energized for the first playoff game here since Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup last June, and vocal pockets of Oilers fans broke up the sea of teal. They've been through a lot. Now they can't hide from it, and it's not going to sneak up on them. But after failing to put a shot on goal, Joel Ward tripped Oilers defenseman Andrej Sekera to cut the advantage 48 seconds short. He also seems to take well to the ice in San Jose. The Oilers bounced back from a lukewarm start and responded with a near-perfect effort, winning a chess-like affair by capitalizing on a late San Jose miscue to take a 2-1 series lead. During the barrage, Patrick Marleau, Mr. Shark himself, planted one in the back of the net with an absolute snipe over Talbot's glove side shoulder to give San Jose a second power play goal and a three, nil lead.
Comments